How to move your vacuum canister

[Dillithium]

Buenos dias amigos, cómo estás?

 

Today we will demonstrate how to move your vacuum canister from behind your front bumper, to somewhere else. You may duplicate the location I used, it matters not.

 

I suffer from the common problem that my vents only blow on defrost. Any Comanche lover worth his salt will immediately rush to inform you that you have a vacuum leak. This is not a lie.

It is the reason I decided to move my vacuum canister closer to my firewall. I wanted to eliminate the possibility that I had a perished line causing the leak.

 

The vacuum canister for jeeps has a couple of functions depending on your trim level. It stores vacuum for certain essential vehicle operations when vacuum is needed. Think of cruise control, moving your blower vents and other key engine functions.

 

 

This is a diagram of where the vacuum canister is located and the two most important lines going to it. The vacuum check valve line and your blower vent line.

 

Let's begin!

 

First, identify your passenger side front bumper:

 

 

Crawl underneath to find these two (if memory serves 13mm) bolts. The pictures are upside down, but so will you be while doing this so I did not rotate them.

 

 

You will find your vacuum canister in this location. ( I got excited and removed it before taking a picture, apologies) Note the front towhook is on the left. We are looking at the farthest corner of the front bumper on the passenger's side.

 

 

Fight this waterskirt, push it back until it gives you your prize (vacuum canister)

 

 

This is the location I selected for placing it. To the left of the engine, behind the battery.

 

 

Trim and connect these two lines to your vacuum canister. The thin one comes from the firewall, and is your blower vent vacuum line. Inspect your lines for cracks and leaks. The thick one comes from your intake manifold, and is routed along the firewall.

 

 

Now securely fasten the canister and you're done!

 

 

 

 

Questions? Post them below!

 

For me it did not fix my blower vent issue, it still only blows on defrost. However, while moving the canister I discovered that my check valve line was not even connected to this canister. Connecting that line resulted in a much more stable idle for me, so I gained something anyway.

 

 

[HOrnbrod]

Nice writeup.  :cheers:   Lot's of ways to do this, and it should be done.  The closer to the firewall you can move it, the less chance you have developing vacuum leaks as it cuts out a lot of the vacuum line. The check valve should be placed as close to the relocated cannister inlet as possible, and the large OEM "football" cannister is completely unnecessary. I did mine like this

[Dillithium]

I completely agree about the football canister. It's an eyesore, but right now I have other chores I want to do first, like cleaning up the wiring near my battery. The 944 canister looks to be a good replacement , though!

[CJ's MJ]

Holy crap I don't even have one. I was wondering why I had vacuum lines by my headlight. Discovered them while replacing radiator. My to do list keeps growing and growing. Lol

[Incommando]

Maybe the HO was smaller but I moved mine to almost the same spot. I pointed the bottom down and it slide right in there.